John Beilein's most important recruit at M?

For me this is a tough question. I want to say Trey Burke and this is the way I am leaning, because without Trey they don't win a share of the BIG Title last season. Ok I will go with Burke.

Other top candidates IMO:

Manny Harris - Manny was in Beilein's first class and it was important to get Manny to remain committed to M

Zack Novak - I could easily choose Novak over Burke. Zack personified the program in his 4 fantastic years with the program. Novak was a major part of laying the groundwork of what is now one of the best basketball programs in the country.

Darius Morris - Beilein's first **** recruit, a kid from the west coast who helped M sweep MSU in his last season with the Wolverines

Mitch McGary - Beilein's first recruit to opt for the Wolverines over the top national programs like Duke, Carolina and Kentucky.

EDIT: overlooked Coltan Christian and added to 2010. I used RIvals list and he's not on it, but is on the Scout list.

Beilein's staff is collectively and individually awesome and a huge factor in how this team plays.

A lot of great kids have been brought in and, IMHO, Coach B's biggest recruit won't be known until their careers are over at Michigan and in full swing at the next level. I can see GR III blowing up in the NBA and impacting future UM recruits.

Novak--He really did a lot for this program and got us through some rough years. I don't know if the team would be in the same place today without him. He spent four years in the Beilein system and helped change the culture of the program.

Novak and Co. won a tourney game in their first season and went to the dance three times in four years. They went through the most successful run Michigan has had in a very long time. It looks like things may get even better but I would hardly characterize those years as rough.

That's a good point. I guess it just seemed rough because it felt like we had no star players. Harris was perpetually underperforming, Morris was good but we didn't really have any other weapons. Novak and Douglass just always seemed like the glue that held those teams together and made the Tourny runs possible.

I think Novak also catalyzed the culture shift to high energy/team basketball that has been fundamental for the team's success, with his leadership aneurysms and whatnot. This is obviously all just subjective though.

always like Darius. For the reason he seemed to start the upward trend of higher rated recruits. He was a great leader and really helped lead this team to being a tournament team and helped bring the excitement around Michigan Basketball again.

He was pivotal to laying the foundation like you said. He was also monumental in that game at East Lansing which helped to turn our season around two years ago. Don't make the Tournament that year it's possible recruits eye us as a team that will occasionally make the Tournament as opposed to a Tournament regular.

With the way Manny went out it was really Morris and to a lesser extent Novak and Douglass that kept the team moving in a positive trajectory. I say lesser b/c Novak and Stu neeeded Morris more than vica-versa.

Morris was the guy who carried the team and made them relevant to future recruits (THjr, Burke..etc...etc). Then its snowballed. More importantly, Morris was NOT a typical Beilein player and shown Beilein's willingness to adapt his style (pick n roll O). This further attracted more high recruit type playerrs since it is a stable in the Pros.

Novak and Douglass were key ROLE players but not key RECRUITS. If Morris wasn't on those teams nobody would have ever heard of Novak and Douglass. UM wouldn't be ranked right now either.

No, I'll go with Darius Morris. For some reason, that felt like the signal to other recruits that it's okay for elite prospects to come here, and without Morris we don't have a 2010-11 season that suggests promise going forward.

Without an adequate foundation, a building can collapse. If you are not planning on building a foundation for a building then you have to have a lot of money in for perpetual repair work.

I'm assuming that the vast majority of fans want a program that allows for teams rather than sporadically successful teams. To build that program you have to start with a foundation. I don't think that there is any question that Zach and Stu are the most important recruits because they represent the foundation.

I think Novak is definitely up there. He's the personification of Coach B's system. The only way I can describe him is as an overachiever. He wasn't the most athletic guy or most talented out there, but he was the toughest and did all of the little things, I almost liked watching Novak take a charge more than draining threes. He's the epitome of how far this program has come.

Novak may be the most important player, but as far as recruiting, I'd have to go with Darius Morris or Tre Burke. Those guys weren't typical Beilein recruits, being so elite, but they were the signal that not only does Michigan have guys like Novak and Douglass, your sharpshooting and hard working guards, but Michigan can attracte elite talent to.

Keeping him committed was huge because it allowed for our first NCAA Tourney appearance in forever, and showed guys like Darius Morris and our latest recruiting class that the program was on a upswing.

Sam Webb, though, has said that Morris's success at Michigan showed other PGs that they could thrive with Coach Beilein, and Michigan wouldn't have made the tournament in 2010 w/out him...Novak and Douglass did set the foundation, though, so I don't know. This is like asking me which of my (fictional) children is my favorite!

But I'll go different - Hardaway. This was the first of the under the radar guys he got that really exploded and became more than just a good player. Sure Novak was even more Gritty McGritterson than we could have hoped, but I don't think he blew us away with how much more ability he had than when he committed. This not only was a sign that guys like Burke, and later GR3, (and Nik as we're seeing now) would out perform their early rankings, but he was the "talent" on the team that lifted us from just being a system program, and created interest for these other guys to take a look at our program.

Hardaway has also been important in raising M hoops' profile nationally in large part because he has a famous name, and also because he came up huge in some nationally televised games his freshman year, as the program was emerging.

I'd say it was Morris. (Manny Harris was definitely crucial to the turnaround, but it was Amaker who did most of the heavy lifting to get him, and his close friend DeShawn Sims was already on the team.) Getting a kid from California to commit to a school that hadn't been in the tournament in a decade (I believe the tourney drought was still on when he committed) was huge. Morris then went on to bridge the gap between the Harris/Sims and Burke-led teams.

helped us rush the court against Duke on Dec 6, 2008. Played lights out as a freshman with 14 points off the bench (with two crucial three pointers in a row in the late second half). (Deshawn Sims, an Amaker recruit, also dropped 28 points and 12 rebounds in that game.)

From freshman year to senior year, Novak inspired everybody. He was the heart and soul of the team. In 2009, he helped will M's way to their first big dance since 1998, as well as in 2010 and 2011. Breaking that tournament drought was tantamount to getting more recruits.

It was nice of Beilein to recruit a good portion of the 2010 football receiving corps in 2007.

As far as most important, I'd go with Morris. As others have said, he was a high-profile recruit from out of state when it wasn't fashionable for high-profile recruits from out of state to come to 'M', and he demonstratd the success that was possible with Beilein, paving the way for others.

I would say Novak. He really laid the foundation and was a great leader. Without him I don't see us being a good team any of the 4 years he was here and I also don't see us improving like we have. He also pretty much single handledly dominated MSU the past few years. Not to mention, without him we probably wouldn't have gotten Mcgary(you never know though).

It's tough to define important. Without re-recruiting Manny, do we have enough firepower to get that first NCAA bid? WIthout that first NCAA bid, does Beilein have enough program momentum to continue to attract talent, let alone keep himself off the hot seat? (I think Morris was a commit before the bid, FWIW)

Bottom line; it's either Manny, Morris, or Burke Hardaway is important, but hasn't been asked to carry the load as much as either of those guys. JMo was coming regardless. Novak and Douglass can make an argument, but they couldn't have possibly done it alone. New guys are fantastic but I define important as changing the trajectory of the program. Manny began the upswing; Morris and Burke prevented a downswing. The new guys just get to keep building.

Manny is the choice because he was the catalyst for it all. And because I was a Maize Rager during that first bid and it was a glorious season.

Darius Morris for sure. Even though he was only here a couple years that 2010-11 run was the most fun I had watching Michigan in a while (beating State twice, killing Tenn in the tournament and almoast beating Duke on that last runner) and he carried us in it. I would put Jordan Morgan up there too as he was our only servicable interior player/defender the last couple years. Which is funny because I remember a lot of people groaning when he originally commited.

I think to truly appreciate what Michigan appears to have become you have to look at what JB was trying to build and who helped him build the foundation. He wanted guys who thought the game, who were coachable, who were decent students, who had the character to represent the university, who helped install his system to usher in future classes, etc. It's true, without Harris or Morris or Burke Michigan would have accomplished far less, but I think it's equally true, when it comes to all of the ingredients it takes to build a program, that without Stu and Zack's 4 years that the program would not be where it is today.